


Our Time Out East

by tahitianmangoes



Series: The Adventures of Clementine Quinn [2]
Category: Red Dead Redemption (Video Games)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-04
Updated: 2020-10-04
Packaged: 2021-03-07 22:22:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 794
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26815060
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tahitianmangoes/pseuds/tahitianmangoes
Summary: Black Belle took Clementine under her wing, if only for a short while.
Relationships: black belle & original female character
Series: The Adventures of Clementine Quinn [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1882603
Kudos: 4





	Our Time Out East

**Author's Note:**

> More OC content on my [tumblr](https://tahitianmangoes.tumblr.com/tagged/clementine+quinn)

Clementine had met Black Belle a couple of years back. Clementine was no bounty hunter; who was she to decide who was right and who was wrong? But money was drying up faster than a savannah in the height of summer. She’d seen the bounty poster hanging up in the Rhodes railway station: Wanted dead or alive: Black Belle.

Clementine had heard stories about Black Belle and she knew she’d probably bitten off more than she could chew. Of course it had been unsuccessful, Belle had nearly laughed Clementine out of the homestead that she had tracked the outlaw to. It was as if she was waiting for Clementine before she’d walked in. Clementine heard the click of a gun in the darkness as the door closed behind her.

“Tough bounty hunter, huh?” Her voice was clear in the small room. Clementine froze, slowly raising her hands, eyes adjusting to the lack of light in the room. She could see the amber glow of a cigarette in the corner, pinpointing where the voice was coming from. The barrel of a shotgun looked back at her.  
“Seen many a girl like you, dime a dozen.”  
Clementine didn’t say anything, not sure whether this was the right time for admitting mistakes and that she was out of her depth.   
Belle chuckled, “I don’t hold it against ya, I was like you, too. Long time ago.” Her eyes sparkled as she looked at Clementine.

Belle held a cigarette out to Clementine and she accepted hesitantly. Belle struck a match on the sole of her boot, Clementine leaned in and let the older outlaw light it for her. She inhaled deeply.  
“What they askin’ for for me?” Belle asked, looking Clementine up and down.  
Clementine shrugged, “$150.”  
Belle scoffed, “I got more than that in my back pocket right now, girly. If you want real money, you could run with me for a while.”  
“W-why would you want me to do that? I came here to take you in.” Clementine said, smoke tumbling from her lips as she did so.   
Belle shrugged, smiling coyly. “I could do with the company. After a while, it’s the loneliness that gets to ya. Tugs at ya…”

Clementine bit her lip. She didn’t want to agree with Belle but she did. So she stayed with Belle for a while.

They held up stagecoaches on their way through the swamps to Saint Denis, Belle taught Clementine how to subdue men much bigger than her with ease and they would frequently head into Saint Denis, giggling like children as they dressed up and went pickpocketing rich gentlemen who were out trying to impress their dates in saloons and cabaret shows.  
They rustled horses and sold them to a couple of shifty looking brothers near Clemens Point. They would rob from homesteads, Belle doing all the talking at the front door while Clementine snuck in around the back, her bandana pulled up to cover her face while she took whatever she could lay her hands on.   
It was fun. Belle was the closest thing Clementine had had to a friend for the first time in her life. They moved around whenever the law were getting too close but Belle could see that Clementine was getting restless.

“You thinkin’ of movin’ on?” Belle asked one night when they were staying near Manzanita Post. The camp fire had burned down to orange embers and the indigo night sky reflected in Clementine’s eyes as she lay on her bedroll, staring up at it.  
“Maybe.” She replied, as curt as ever.   
“You do what you gotta do, girly. You’re only young once.”  
It was bittersweet to leave Belle who had taught Clementine so much, not just about the life of an outlaw but how to be fearless and independent in a world ruled by men.

Belle wasn’t into emotional goodbyes and neither was Clementine but it didn’t stop them from sharing a warm, albeit awkward, embrace before Clementine mounted up and rode out west.   
Clementine missed Belle over the years; she heard things here and there but never saw her again. She thought back about what Belle said to her:

“It’s the loneliness that’ll get to you. It tugs at you. The wind whispers to you when you’re all alone out here. The coyotes laugh at your suffering. The sky stretches on endlessly, with not another soul in sight. Cigarettes and booze only work for a while and the need to feel skin against yours, to hear someone else’s voice… Hear their heart at night while you’re lying together. Sometimes that ain’t enough. You can take lovers til your heart don’t flutter no more but they all leave in the end, one way or another…”

_Ain’t that the truth…_


End file.
